A Strange Triple Crown Ends with Another Odd Twist

[Wandering Eyes]

Well, this one isn’t going to go down as one of those memorable Triple Crowns we will still be talking about 30 years from now, will it? No surprise there.

From the start, this was the Triple Crown series that just never gelled, that will be remembered more for chaos and odd circumstances than the three horses that won the three races. There was some excitement, but it came in small doses. Is this how soccer fans feel after the final score is nil-nil?

Take nothing away from Sir Winston (Awesome Again), who captured the final jewel of the Triple Crown, Saturday’s GI Belmont S., and was, by the way, the only horse in the field who had run a triple-digit Beyer figure. Benefitting from a very good ride by Joel Rosario, he was good enough to win the race and etch his name in the history books. He’s well-bred and improving and don’t be surprised if there is another big win or two left to come on his resume.

But he was trainer Mark Casse’s “other” horse. While GI Preakness S. winner War of Will (War Front), who ran so well in the middle leg of the series to prove himself after all the trouble he encountered in the GI Kentucky Derby, received all the attention, hardly anyone noticed that Casse had a second horse in the race. Even the trainer looked a bit bewildered when being interviewed after the race. Certainly, he was happy to have won a Belmont, but his excitement seemed muted. He’s too smart to have said so, but you can be pretty darn certain he didn’t see this one coming, Sir Winston beating War of Will or War of Will finishing ninth.

Adding to the omnipresent oddness that hovered over the last five weeks, Sir Winston actually fouled War of Will. It really didn’t matter as War of Will just didn’t have it, and the interference probably cost him no more than a length. Obviously, War of Will’s jockey Tyler Gaffalione was not about to claim foul against a stablemate.

It seems like 38 weeks ago and not that 38 days ago that Kentucky Derby favorite Omaha Beach (War Front) was withdrawn from the Derby with an entrapped epiglottis. Maybe we should have figured out that this was some sort of bad omen, but the cast of 3-year-olds eyeing the Triple Crown races still looked like a bunch capable of putting on a good show.

Bob Baffert had his usual embarrassment of riches in GI Santa Anita Derby winner Roadster (Quality Road), 2-year-old champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Grade I winner Improbable (City Zip). After winning last year’s Triple Crown, Baffert didn’t so much as hit the board in any of this year’s three races. Tacitus (Tapit), the winner of the GII Wood Memorial and GII Fountain of Youth winner Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}), were both trained by Hall of Famers and also looked like they had the talent to go far.

So who wins the Kentucky Derby? It was Country House (Lookin at Lucky), who was 65-1 and the second-longest priced winner in the history of the race. Yet, owners Gary and Mary West still think they own the real Kentucky Derby winner in Maximum Security (New Year’s Day). A horse whose connections either had so little regard for or totally misread his ability, he broke his maiden for $16,000, but turned out to be a very good horse and won the GI Florida Derby for trainer Jason Servis. You know the rest of the story…crosses the wire first in the Derby, the bumping, the disqualification, the lawsuit, West offering a $5-million side bet to any of the owners involved in the Derby controversy if they would accept a race within a race wager that their horse couldn’t beat Maximum Security.

Maximum Security needed time afer the Derby and we may not see him again until the GI Haskell Invitational July 20 at Monmouth Park. Country House wasn’t able to make Round Two either as he came down with a virus. Not one of the first four horses that crossed the wire in the Derby returned for the Preakness. That was fine by Casse and owner Gary Barber, whose War of Will showed his toughness to win and showed that he might just have won the Derby if he hadn’t gotten mugged. Yet, the biggest headlines went to Bodexpress (Bodemeister) because he threw John Velazquez at the start and then ran merrily around the track without a jockey on his back.

Fast forward to the Belmont. As so often happens, the crop of Triple Crown campaigners was down to bare bones. War of Will, the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races, and Tacitus looked like the two best horses on paper. Some thought Todd Pletcher could pull a rabbit out of his hat with either Spinoff (Hard Spun) or Intrepid Heart (Tapit) and Sir Winston had sandwiched some good races into between poor ones. It was hard to be inspired by anyone else in the field.

The star of the show was as much jockey Joel Rosario as it was Sir Winston. The same jockey who had Game Winner so wide on the far turn in the Kentucky Derby that he knocked over a mint julep resting on the lap of a patron in the first row, he rode a superb race. He saved every inch of ground on both turns before slipping into the three path after the field turned into the stretch. Meanwhile, Gaffalione had War of Will at least three or four paths wide for much of the trip before tipping out into the five path nearing the end of the far turn. On Tacitus, Jose Ortiz took the same overland route.

Sir Winston won by a length. Had Ortiz saved any ground, he easily could have won the race.

So, who is the sport’s best 3-year-old male? The answer is probably Maximum Security, but who can really say, at least until we get through the Haskell, the GI Travers S. and the GI Pennsylvania Derby? Hopefully, someone will step forward and clean up this mess.

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